Growing Okra In Southwest Washington State & Other Garden Stuff

I feel like I tend to gloss over what I'm doing with my greenhouse.

First, I'd like to say that, realistically, I'd like to get a couple more greenhouses. The size is good fit for me and I could expand what I grow exponentially. They are tall enough to run a trellis in and with having two doors, at either end, they are fairly easy to regulate as far as temperature goes.

Let's do a quick walk-through, shall we?

First off, here's a livestock report. We have developed a system for these guys. We throw our veggie scraps out in strategic areas of the yard and they seem to leave my garden alone. If they continue to be like that, we can co-exist. 

This guy was across the driveway. He wasn't even scared of Rose! Rose doesn't seem all that interested in chasing them anyhow. I think she tried a couple of times and figured out that it was fighting a losing battle because as fast as she is, they are even faster.

We've inquired about a male Australian kelpie. He's located in Texas. He'd be a rescue. We're trying to find out how much it would be to ship him up here. I'll keep you updated on that.

I'm beyond excited!! I do not live in a climate that is conducive to growing okra. We don't have a hot enough climate for them. I planted out two heirloom varieties, Jing Orange and Okinawa Pink (both are Baker Creek varieties) and, yesterday, I noticed my first okra blossom. Today, I have baby okra. From what I know about okra, it will be this size this morning and huge by tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm very excited about this experiment working out in my benefit. Okra will always have a place in my greenhouse from now on. I am planning on getting another greenhouse that I can dedicate half of it to growing okra. I love the stuff! This is an Jing Orange okra.

This is my Loofah Gourd. It's growing right along. I don't think I'll actually get any production from it but I wanted to see if I could even grow it here. Now that I know that I can, I'll grow it next year but I'll start out much earlier. I only gave the cucurbits a 5 week head start. I think they need double that amount of time, so I'll start them in mid-April in 2023.

This is one of the Okinawa Pink okra. I have about  4 or 5 baby okra on my plants. I think I wound up with 7 plants total. 

Bob's not a huge fan, so this will be plenty for me. 

These are my 4 cucamelon plants. I'm hoping that they will produce. I think I'll have enough time. I'd love to pickle some of these up for this winter.

I grew my first cucamelon last year. I got like 4 little cucamelons off of it. Cucamelons like to be very warm and being in the greenhouse lets me create the perfect habitat for them.

In this pot, I have Tigger melons in the front and Kajari melons in the back. Both are Baker Creek varieties. I know that cucurbits are easy to cross but I am not planning on saving seeds from these this year. I just want to see if I can actually grow a melon in the greenhouse. If I'm able to, I'll worry about bagging some blooms next year to save seeds from. I still have plenty of each variety leftover.

Next to the Kajari and Tigger melons, I have a Siamese Bitter melon vine growing. I had to untangle it from the window screen and wind it around the stake.

This is another one of those things that I'm experimenting with this year to see if I could even hope to get it to produce.
I do love bitter melon soup and Vietnamese stuffed bitter melon.

Here's another view of the 2 melons.

I think that, this winter, we'll use the white vinegar method of killing weeds and then lay down some landscape fabric and cover it with wood chips. I'm really over the weeds. As good of a growing environment that this greenhouse is for my melons and okra, the weeds love it even more!

Here is my Minnesota Midget cantaloupe. I haven't had a good cantaloupe since we lived up in Silverlake and we were buying those Hood River cantaloupes at the market in Castle Rock. They were so delicious. I'm hoping to replicate that flavor by growing my own. I picked a short season variety. I believe these seeds came from MIGardener, which surprises me because I don't usually have the greatest luck with his seeds.
I ordered from him this past year because he was the only seed vendor offering Spring Blush peas. I threw the cantaloupes in on a whim.

They are blooming so we'll see.

Another shot of the Baker Creek melons next to the Cucamelons. All 3 of these varieties came from Baker Creek.

My old neighbor gave me a pot of gladiolus. I'm not sure what variety they are. She may have even picked them up from the Dollar Tree. No matter. They are stunningly gorgeous!

I still have my rose bushes in a pot. They aren't looking the greatest. We didn't get them planted out this year so that's our project over the winter.

Here's the lowest terrace. The hose is stretched down there because we have a sprinkler in the orchard.
Speaking of the orchard, we had a tree full of pie cherries 4 days ago and, yesterday, the birds had completely stripped it clean. We didn't get one cherry off of either tree. We'll have to net them next year, for sure.

I didn't notice the little guy when I was taking the photo, but there's another rabbit down there. LOL. We have them all over. If we drive down the driveway in the morning or evening, we have to go super slow. It's not just because of the potholes, it's because there are so many wild rabbits all over the place.

We also noticed that our wild blackberries are starting to turn red. In a couple of weeks, we should be able to pick some.

And here is yet another wild rabbit. This guy is eating the lettuce leaves that we threw out there for them. Our supermarket had carrots on special, so we bought a pound of them. We broke up a few and tossed them here and there, in areas that are not near the garden. We're hoping that the deer and rabbits enjoy their snacks.

Thanks for taking the tour! Enjoy!

Planting Cucurbits & Okra and May Garden Update

 I've got a schedule that I'm holding to, as far as planting stuff out this year. Today was the day to get cucurbits planted and okra started. Luckily, I have this nifty greenhouse to help me out with things. I am grateful for that. I sat in there, in the pouring rain, and planted. It was peaceful.

It's, by no means, big enough for what I want to do...but it's a start.

Today, I planted out my cucurbits. Cucurbits are squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and gourds. They only need like a 4-week head start before being planted out. I'm planning on these going out by mid-June. It rains too much here for really any other time. Some of these will stay in this greenhouse to grow because they need the heat, like the Cucamelons.

Here is the list of what I got seeded in today:
*Parisian Pickling Cucumber (heirloom/OP variety)
*Arctic F1 Cucumber (hybrid variety. I'm going to see if I get a better harvest from these than I get from the heirloom variety)
*Dragon's Egg Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Marketmore 76 Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Jealous Neighbor F1 Cucumber (hybrid)
*White Wonder Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Balcony Swallowtail F1 Cucumber (hybrid)
*Armenian Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Mexican Sour Gherkin aka Cucamelon
*Siamese Bitter Melon
*Sugar Baby Bush Watermelon
*Kajari Melon
*Tigger Melon
*Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe
*Loofah Gourd
*Svitozar Zucchini (yellow variety)
*Dark Green Zucchini
*Patisson-Panache Et Vert Scallop Squash
*Gelber Englischer Custard Squash
*Rampicante Zucchino
*Hulless Dana Pumpkin
*American Tondo Pumpkin
*Musquee de Provence Pumpkin
*Lakota Squash
*Table Queen Acorn Squash
*Iran Squash
*Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua Squash
*Delicata Squash
*Kobocha Squash
*Pineapple Squash

I also planted 9 seeds each of Okinawa Pink Okra and Jing Orange Okra. Life is too short for boring green okra!

I got these all tucked away in the green house with the peppers.

I do have to say that it stays rather warm inside of this greenhouse. I'm impressed. I haven't lost any pepper plants due to being too cold yet.

My little baby tomato plants look great. The biggest one is the Red Dumplin Winner Pink. It's a variety that I got from Tomato Jim Wyant.
We figured out what was eating my plants while they were in the shed. It was a chipmunk.

We got another nice surprise today (I had several, garden-wise). I wasn't sure how my potato bed idea would work out. They seem to be really liking it. For whatever reason, we didn't harvest the Red Gold potatoes that I ordered last year. I paid $10 for a pound of them. Anyhow, they are growing!  I may leave my Jerusalem artichokes in a container for this year because I need to find where I can dedicate a space for them. They will take over. I don't mind them doing this, but since they get really tall (like 10 feet or better), I don't want them in my main garden area. I want them to have their own place. It's going to be the same with my Egyptian Walking Onions. They need their own space to grow.

The peas are doing fantastic. They are already grabbing onto the shrog netting.

We need to get this grass cut down. Eventually, that is all going to be wood chips. I'm going to kill off the grass. It will make it easier to maintain and, unless you have grazing livestock, grass is stupid.

The raised beds are doing ok. They'll last a few more years before they get rotten and fall apart. I planted all sorts of spring type plants in there: lettuce, kale, broccoli rabe, cilantro, radishes, etc.

My carrots have sprouted. I have 5 varieties planted out in the deep tub. I have Parisienne Market, Gniff, Kyoto Red, Uzbek Golden and Longue Rouge Sang.

In the biggest bed, I've put in cabbage, broccoli, Walla Walla Sweet Onions and various beets, radishes and some Black Nebula carrots.

Baby radishes. These are 18 Day French Breakfast Radishes.

Strawberries and raspberries in the terraced garden.

These are honeyberries and a pot of black raspberries. There's also some different mints back there.

A bit of a sidetrack here, but I have a washer and dryer fully installed and working now.

This is the site of my future greenhouse.
So, that's how things are growing in my garden so far.